Monday, January 28, 2008

Recipes for Meyer Lemons

(Totally vegan) Chocolate & Meyer Lemon Sorbet starts a battle in your mouth. It's like when you're in a darkened cinema and you happen to gorge on a handful of sour, sugary, gummy worms at the exact same time as a chunk of chocolate from a bag of Pick'n'Mix. Every single taste bud becomes a boxing bag as the acid onslaught begins, but no sooner has the torture begun, a bitter sweet swathe of chocolate velvet floods through to calm and soothe, and so you take another spoonful and then another...

When life a work colleague gives you Meyer lemons, the fun is deciding what to do with them. This past weekend I was down with a sore throat so my first thought was to get out the ice cream maker and make something cold. I riffed on my friend David Lebovitz's Chocolate-Tangerine Sorbet, from the copy of The Perfect Scoop he gave me and I was delighted with the crazy, vibrant-tasting result of using Meyer lemons instead of tangerines. The startling combination was akin to Lime and Chocolate truffles I've enjoyed before. Chocolate and lemon. They're just not put together often enough. Get out there and play with them, both at the same time.

Meyer lemons are so versatile. As well as the sorbet, I made a simple but lovely lemony spaghetti with them too. All it took were a couple of shallots, Parmigiano Reggiano, walnut oil, a teaspoon of creme fraiche and lots of salt and pepper. (Too bad I had no parsley which I suspect would have raised the bar from muggle-dish to magical.) As with the chocolate, Meyer lemons go so well with cheese: I've been dreaming of a special white seasonal pizza I had a few weeks ago at Piccino, where slivers of the lemon and florets of broccoli rabe were spread out on an gooey melted bed of cheese, dotted with spicy dribbles of chili oil. It was divine. Aside from a splash of Meyer lemon I used to brighten a healthy soup, fashioned mainly from beet leaves, ready for next week's healthy packed lunches, the only remaining use I have for my favourite citrus this weekend is a hot toddy. When you have a head cold there's only one thing for it: Lemsip. Thing is, I am certain it will go down much better with a squeeze of real juice and a glug of something potent to help me sleep. Has any one ever tried a hot toddy made with Amaretto instead of Scotch? Well, there's a first thing for everything. Better, methinks, to be a Shepherd than a Sheep, although I wouldn't say no to following any of these great-sounding Meyer lemon recipes either...

This is awesome! I have a meyer lemon tree growing outside my house and am psyched to have some new ideas for what to do with its bounty. Anyone who lives in North Berkeley (or passes through the hood) and wants to take a few is welcome to contact me.

cookiecrumb - that is TOO funny because I didn't exactly follow one of his recipes for that particular recipe. I added St George pear Eau de Vie you see, and David didn't suggest that at all but it seemed like the best idea ever to me.

You'll have to buy MY book as soon as it comes out (don't hold your breath!)

Great list -- my meyer lemon tree is currently exploding with a bounty of fruit. I have a somewhat love/hate relationship with the meyer lemon and tend to enjoy it more in savory dishes. I like cooked/flaked tuna tossed with chopped kalamata olives, red onion, a bit of celery, meyer lemon zest, fresh black pepper, and a good dose of extra virgin olive oil.

Hi Sam - sounds divine (the ice cream). Here are my two thoughts on meyere lemons (our shared tree still has about 200 on our side)

First up is THE lemon cake - http://www.tomatilla.com/2004/02/lemon-cake-update.html

which we usually make with meyer lemons

and I recently made a Dundee (chunky) and caramelized (cooked it for seven hours) marmalade - the basic procedure is buried in herehttp://www.tomatilla.com/2008/01/happy-new-year-maybe-gluten-free.html

and then for the savory lovers there is one of the first ever paper chef winners - curried chicken and squash soup with meyere lemon - that's over at SeattleBonVivant

Oh I ADORE Meyer lemons (okay, so I talk about stealing them from the neighbor's tree on my blog). Which means, of course, I adore your list.

I'm spending a nice thirty minutes here browsing these recipes and dreaming of munchies and drinks, both hale and hearty, and thinking, hmmm, it is time for a little walk right past the neighbors lovely lemon tree.

Hmmmm . . . I've been eyeing the Meyer lemons at the market lately (they are stunning, aren't they?), but life has just been a bit too tart to come up with much inspiration. So I thank you for this post and all these ideas for how to use them! I'll be printing quite a few.

These are wonderful links! A friend introduced me to meyer lemon sandwiches - lightly grill a generous slice of crusty bread and butter it. Thin, thin, thinly slice some meyers and place a few slices on the bread. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Use a vegetable peeler to slice a few pieces of pecorino romano on top.

But a Meyer lemon hot toddy for us sinus/sore throat cases (sans the Amaretto in my case) sounds good. My gran (who never swore) swore by a lemon hot toddy for a cold. Heck, it makes you feel better somehow.

'Becks and Posh' is modern cockney for 'nosh'. Follow English-Girl-Abroad, Sam Breach, on her culinary travels, mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area, but also further afield, whilst she plays at being amateur restaurant critic, wine taster, food photographer, cocktail connoisseur, party planner, good food forager and practising home cook, with trusted French advisor, Fred, by her side.